#BeOpen Is About Far More Than Tennis

I just returned from the U.S. Open, so the last few weeks have been star-studded and tennis-filled. Serena was obviously one of the major highlights, but you won’t want to miss some of the other, incredibly inspiring stories, such as Frances Tiafoe, Nick Kyrgios, Coco Gauff, and Caroline Garcia.

I was there not just as a fan, but also in my role as president of the United States Tennis Association Foundation, the charitable arm of the USTA. The Foundation hosts a gala on the opening night of the U.S. Open to raise funds for tennis and educational programming for under-resourced youth, and I’m proud to say that we had a record-breaking evening.

In 2020, the USTA launched its Be Open campaign to promote messages of progress, positivity, and equality. The campaign, which is ongoing, features artists, films, and social media highlighting women, athletes of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. The general message is to encourage the tennis community to “be open” to the world around them, new ideas, and new perspectives.

The Path of Most Resistance

Just as I found inspiration and even strength in #OnlyJoy, I’m also finding that #BeOpen has woven its way into other, non-tennis areas of my life. I like to let it remind me to Be Open to all the surprises life brings me — some of them wonderful and joy-filled (see here and, of course, here), others a little more challenging  (one of which I’ll be sharing with you in a few weeks).

Life doesn’t always present neat, well-manicured pathways, so sometimes you have to stumble and feel your way through, often on the path of seemingly most resistance. That path can be littered with supply chain problems, heartbreak, unpleasant people and situations, and less-than-delicious food. But when you stare those challenges down and show them who’s boss, the maturity, wisdom, and — if I’m being totally honest — almost deafening levels of self-satisfaction make it all worth it.

A long time ago, I started living by the mantra “Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.” First, it was a survival technique as a young lawyer starting out in a challenging economy that had devastated my chosen practice area. Then it became a way to become accustomed to using my voice and asserting myself as a leader when my instincts were to be more of a worker bee who kept her head down and churned out the work.

Is It Karma?

Divorce brought a whole new level of uncomfortable, but it was also a turning point in my life perspective. The universe was going to throw lemons at me one way or another, and I couldn’t ignore them altogether. None of us can. But I had control over how much of my emotional energy I dedicated to the negative, albeit unavoidable, aspects of life, and how much energy I dedicated to seeking out, accepting, and nurturing joy.

I chose to put far more of my energy into the latter. And it paid, and continues to pay, dividends on a daily basis.

Is this karma? Maybe. I’m not sure whether I believe the universe delivers good things to good people and bad things to bad people. After all, I see bad things happen to good people, and vice versa, all the time. People who don’t “deserve” cancer get it every day, and all sorts of people who don’t “deserve” sweet, well-behaved dogs seem to have perfect dogs in their lives.

Staying Open to Joy & Daily Delights

But I have noticed a trait among those who thrive despite life’s sometimes crippling, shattering challenges: the refusal to close themselves off to the joy in the world.

I see this in the parents who turn their grief over their daughter’s suicide into a foundation celebrating her life and the lives of others like her; the girlfriend who, despite a career-ending layoff and sudden death of a beloved father, still exudes sunshine and brings joy into the lives of her friends; the tennis star who powers through her battle with ovarian cancer and dedicates her energy to helping kids who lost academic ground during the pandemic.

It's not just powering through the challenges. Being open to joy is also about looking for and highlighting the small wins we encounter every day. The parking spot that opens right when we need it, or the extra bag of fries that somehow gets added to our drive-through order. Those little daily delights deserve shout-outs, whether it’s just a personal high-five, a note in your journal, or a social media post.

Hang a lantern on your daily wins, and you might realize you have more of them than you realize. Even that small change can be transformative.

I know many of us turned inward during the pandemic. Life became, and in some ways still is, a balancing act of what’s a smart level of “pushing the boundaries” and what’s a foolish risk to take that could potentially endanger our own and our family’s health. That balancing act will likely continue for a while. As much as we’re “done” with the pandemic, we all know the pandemic isn’t done with us. 

But we shouldn’t let the lingering pandemic close us off. Find ways to welcome joy into your life. Find ways to #BeOpen.

I promise the universe will find a way to pay you back, with interest.